The Institute for Conflict Management is organising an international conference on the theme Jammu & Kashmir: Alternative Futures on May 18-19, 2006, at the Heritage Village Resort, Manesar.

The Conference is based on the premise that the discourse on Jammu and Kashmir is currently and overwhelmingly defined by those who resort to terrorism, their sponsors and their front organisations. Other political constituencies, including the elected representatives of the people in Indian administered areas, the people of the regions that are denied democratic representation and political and human rights in Pakistan administered areas, as well as the diverse communities that constitute local minorities, the displaced and the Diaspora, or who have material grievances regarding the circumstances in which they are forced to live, have largely been silenced or marginalized in this discourse. There is, consequently, urgent need to move away from the positions that have become entrenched in the current negotiation processes, and to evolve a more inclusive understanding of the diverse interests and communities of the Jammu & Kashmir region in its entirety, and in its relation to Asia’s evolving geostrategic and economic structure.

The Conference would be among the first initiatives to shift the valley-centric discourse to the larger issues concerning the diverse communities of the entire Jammu & Kashmir region. Participants in the Conference are drawn from Gilgit-Baltistan, 'Azad' Jammu & Kashmir, the Valley, Jammu, and Leh-Ladakh, as well as a number of expatriates. It is significant, within this context, that representatives from Gilgit-Baltistan were prevented by Pakistani authorities from participating in the Pugwash Conference at Islamabad on March 10-12, 2006. Participants in the Conference who have confirmed attendance include:

From Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PAK)

1. Mohd. Sabir Kashmiri, Chairman, All Parties National Alliance (APNA)
2. Prof. M.A.R.K. Khaleeque, Vice Chairman, APNA
3. Arif Shahid, Secretary General, Jammu and Kashmir National Liberation Front (JKNLF)
4. Sardar Ishtiaq Hussain, General Secretary, United Kashmir People’s National Party (UKPNP)
5. Fazal Mahmood Baig, President, Jammu and Kashmir National Students Federation (JKNSF)
6. Farooq Khan Niazi-Finance Secy, APNA
7. Khwaja Manzoor Qadir, Secy Gen, JKLL
8. Nazir Ijaz, Jammu Kashmir National Awami Party (JKNAP)
9. Mohd. Nasim Iqbal

From Gilgit–Baltistan

1. Mirza Wajahat Hassan, President, Gilgit-Baltistan Thinker Forum
2. Manzoor Hussain Parwana, Chairman Gilgit-Baltistan United Movement
3. Haji Gandal Shah, Chairman Bhasha Namanzoor Committee
4. Muzaffar Ali/Rally, Member, Northern Areas Legislative Council (NALC)
5. Ali Khan Shafqat

Leaders Based Abroad

UK

1. Dr. Nazir Gilani, Chairman, International Kashmir Alliance (IKA)
2. Dr. Shabir Choudhry, Spokesman, IKA
3. Abbas Butt, Tresurer, IKA
4. Adalat Ali, Kashmir Nationality Identity Campaign, UK
5. Nazir-Ul-Haq Nazish, Academic & Political activist, UK

Switzerland

1. Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, Secy Gen, IKA

Canada

9. Mumtaz Khan, Vice Chairman IKA,

From J&K

1. Omar Abdullah, President, National Conference
2. Yusuf Tarigami, MP
3. Usman Majid, MLA
4. Justice Ali Mohd. Mir , Chairman, J&K HR Commission
5. Zafar Iqbal Manhas, Journalist/Human Rights Activist
6. Hashim Qureshi, President, Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Liberation Front (JKDLF)
7. Pinto S. Narboo, Leader Ladakh Buddhist Forum
8. Ashghar Karbalai, Chairman & Chief Executive, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil,
9. Agni Sekhar Chairman, Panun Kashmir (A-faction)
10. Talib Hussain Choudhry – Rajouri-Poonch
11. M.M. Khajuria, former DGP & rep of Poonch-Rajouri

The Conference will be held over two days, and will be subdivided into four sessions structured around the various themes broadly encompassing the following:

• The future of Jammu & Kashmir in the evolving global context
• Multiple Identities and their Accommodation.
• Economic Development, Exclusion and Integration
• Processes and Contours of Resolution

We believe that the current Conference would break some new ground on the various issues relating to the multiple conflicts and contradictions in the broader Jammu & Kashmir region, and would also provide significant inputs for future discussions on the issue.

The Institute for Conflict Management (ICM) is an independent, non-profit Think Tank headed by K.P.S. Gill who, as Director General of Police, Punjab, led the campaign that comprehensively defeated terrorism in that State. ICM focuses particularly on various patterns of sub-conventional conflict in the South Asian region, and has the largest open-source database on the subject in the world.

PRESS RELEASE
May 18, 2006

On the first day of the two-day international conference on Jammu & Kashmir: Alternative Futures on May 18-19, 2006, at the Heritage Village Resort, Manesar, organised by the Institute for Conflict Management, speakers were unanimous in declaring that there should be an unambiguous end to violence in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and that adequate attention must be given to the entire region of J&K, including PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan when solutions to the 'Kashmir issue' are discussed.

Speaking at the Conference, Member of Legislative Assembly from Anantnag district in J&K, Mohd. Yusuf Tarigami pondered "who is responsible for demolishing the secular, democratic nature of Kashmir?" Pakistan, he said, has succeeded in introducing certain elements in our personalities; the subversion of the values in which our relations with India were based. It was successive regimes in Delhi that made this possible. Tarigami observed, "It was not the capacities of Pakistan that created the trouble. It was the incapacities of the governments in Delhi and Srinagar."

The UK-based Dr. Nazir Gilani, Chairman of the International Kashmir Alliance (IKA), said Kashmiris have been misunderstood, and non-Kashmiris are all becoming Kashmir experts. According to him, "we have lost a generation in Kashmir. Who is accountable and legally culpable? Someone has to compensate. Reparation must be there." At the Pugwash Conference organised in Islamabad in March 2006, the organisers "behaved like the Public Works Department of the Government of Pakistan", observed Dr. Gilani.

Mr. Manzoor Hussain Parwana, Chairman of the Gilgit-Baltistan United Movement, said people living in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) do not agree with the name of Northern Areas given by Pakistan, because the name itself is a strategy to isolate GB from the Kashmir issue. According to him, GB does not find mention in either the Pakistani or Indian Constitution. Mr. Parwana emphatically noted that location of Pakistani troops in GB is illegal and violates the UN Resolution. Pakistan talks of demilitarization, but GB has seen a continuous increase in Forces, opined Mr. Parwana.

Both India and Pakistan are responsible for the suffering in GB, because India has also declared GB as a 'silent zone' and has failed to project the atrocities perpetrated by Pakistan on the people of the region. Peace processes, he noted, are just suggestions and road maps. "We need a solution", he added.

Recollecting the Kargil war, he said: "Our youth was killed in the Kargil Operation, and they were called 'militants'. There were not militants. they were our people who join the Northern Areas Light Infantry because of their poverty."

According to Mr. Ali Khan Shafqat, another speaker from GB, "Both Musharraf and Government of India take the Hurriyat Conference as the representatives of Kashmir. But they are not our representatives. The negotiations should be with representatives of all the people of Kashmir. We do not recognize Maulvi Omar Farooq as qualified to negotiate the future of GB."

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Farooq Khan Niazi, Finance Secretary of the All Parties National Alliance (APNA) which is based in Muzaffarabad in PoK, noted that links with India can only be on the basis of secularism, democracy and sovereignty, and if India remains silent when these principles are violated in Kashmir, it creates space for the gun.

Mr. Adalat Ali of the United Kingdom-based Kashmir Nationality Identity Campaign opined that people of PoK, GB, the fourth column and Kashmiri Diaspora have been absolutely ditched by the Indian state. He claimed "they ignore us, neglect us, and go over our heads to speak to our occupiers about our future. That is very worrying for us."

Mr. Shabir Choudhury, spokesperson of the International Kashmir Alliance, said gun culture and violence is not the way forward. He added that unfortunately those who bring gun culture into the discourse are promoted and find a seat at the negotiating table. There should be no space for terrorists in negotiations. While noting that we promote the terrorists, he pointed out that "these people are treated like heroes across the border, and when they come to India, they are treated like heroes. Individual meetings are arranged with the PM of India, and I am sure that they could have individual meetings with President Musharraf. Don't let Delhi and Islamabad decide who represents us."

Mr. Hashim Qureshi of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Liberation Front observed that whenever the Hurriyat Conference ask for a personal meeting with the PM, it is granted. But when it comes to open forums, they either "get a stomach ache, or go abroad, or find some other excuse." Mr. Qureshi pertinently asked: "What are they asking for from the PM in these 'separate meetings'." If we are to save civilisation and society, Mr. Qureshi said we must never reward terrorism.

Noting that the Conference is a loud expression against violence, Mr. Agnishekhar of the Panun Kashmir said there has to be a shift from the cult of violence to the philosophy of violence and one must focus on the ideology of violence and its promoters. Drawing attention to the pathos of the Kashmiri Pandits, he said: "Today Kashmir is not a secular piece of land. It is a Muslim Kashmir. It is a Kashmir where I am not, because I am an unbeliever, a traitor, an 'Indian agent'."

The Srinagar-based Zafar Iqbal Manhas while observing that "We must speak against terrorism whatever its form," added "as long as we think of the Kashmir issue as a life and death issue between India and Pakistan, it will never be solved." He also emphatically said "If India and Musharraf can speak to Hurriyat, who have never rejected violence, then they should also speak to all other constituencies in J&K."

Highlighting a significant aspect of the Conference, the Canada-based Mumtaz Khan, Vice-Chairman of the IKA, held that the people of Gilgit Baltistan are being provided a rare opportunity to speak. According to him, they are not allowed to speak on that side. He also observed that India has a legal right and the Instrument of Accession, but it does not have the courage to protest against human right violations in GB. Khan noted that "If Pakistan pulls out support, stops supporting the gun in J&K, terrorism will die out in ten days."

The Institute for Conflict Management (ICM) is an independent, non-profit Think Tank headed by K.P.S. Gill who, as Director General of Police, Punjab, led the campaign that comprehensively defeated terrorism in that State. ICM focuses particularly on various patterns of sub-conventional conflict in the South Asian region, and has the largest open-source database on the subject in the world.

Dr. Ajai Sahni
Executive Director, Institute for Conflict Management
Executive Director, South Asia Terrorism Portal
Editor, South Asia Intelligence Review [SAIR]
Executive Editor, Faultlines: Writings on Conflict & Resolution
Associate Director, Urban Futures Initiative

Ph: 91 11 23715455, 91 11 23710374, 91 11 23710375
Cell: 91 98100 80303; 91 93134 83395
FAX: 91 11 23715455

Address: Institute for Conflict Management, 11, Talkatora Road, New Delhi 110 001, INDIA

E-mail: icm@satp.org; icm@del3.vsnl.net.in; ajaisahni@yahoo.com.
Website: www.satp.org

PRESS RELEASE
May 19, 2006

On the concluding day of the two-day international conference on Jammu & Kashmir: Alternative Futures on May 18-19, 2006, at the Heritage Village Resort, Manesar, organised by the Institute for Conflict Management, delegates arrived at a unanimous resolution which is to be presented at a Press Conference on May 20, 2006, at the Kamal Mahal, Maurya Sheraton Hotel. Delegates from Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan administered Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmiri leaders based in US and UK will be present at the Press Conference to interact with the media.

Speaking on the concluding day of the Conference, Fazal Mahmood Baig, President of the Jammu and Kashmir National Students Fedeeration, said "The one party that is most responsible for our ghulami (slavery) is Pakistan. I say this here, I say it on the other side of the border as well." Mr. Baig disclosed that after the earthquake, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) gave all resources, including the international aid received, to the Lashkar-e-Toiba, and projected them as messiahs. These foreign fundamentalists, he said, have done great damage to J&K, and they should be immediately expelled from the State.

Mr. Abbas Butt of the International Kashmir Alliance (IKA) noted that India has been indifferent to the problems of the people of Pakistan administered Kashmir. Thousands were displaced by the Mangla Dam and more will be displaced when its height is raised, he said, however, not a voice has been raised in our support from the Kashmir Valley or from India.

According to Prof. M.A.R.K. Khaleeque, Vice Chairman of the All Parties National Alliance, "It has been said that unless there is a consensus on a solution, there can be no resolution. But the parties to the conflict have all contradictory positions. Unless there are some compromises by the various parties, there can be no resolution to J&K."

Speaking on the need for a people-to-people dialogue, Haji Gandal Shah of the Bhasha Naam Namanzoor Committee from Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), observed: "The people of the regions of Kashmir have not been allowed to meet and interact, and that is the reason why the problem of Kashmir has become the more complex. The trend to greater interactions has begun, and it must be continued. A solution will emerge from these processes, and from the people of J&K themselves." He also underlined the inequities that underpinned the Basha Dam project and the fact that the people of the region were being excluded from its benefits, without due compensation or rehabilitation.

Muzaffar Ali 'Rally', Member of the Northern Areas Legislative Council in GB, on his first visit to India said he was elated that he received the kind of affection here that he expected from members of his own family. The issue and the conflict is not of the people, he said, it is between the Governments of India and Pakistan.

Speaking on the same lines, Mohammad Nasim Akhtar of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (Rauf Faction, JKLF-R) confessed that he did not expect to come to Delhi so easily and quickly, and to be able to speak openly about the issue of the 'freedom of Kashmir'.

Noting that India and Pakistan need the peace process more than the Kashmiris, Nazir Ijaz, Secretary General of the Jammu & Kashmir National Awami Party, said "If, under the peace process, we are given the opportunities to meet, we should take advantage of these opportunities to examine and work towards a workable alternative future." He added further, "Azad Kashmir is not Azad, and that is a fact."

Sabir Kashmiri also of the JKLF-R spoke on the need for a process of election to select spokespersons from each region and that each region should be represented by people elected by transparent processes.

In his presentation, Pinto Narboo, leader of the Ladakh Buddhist Forum, said one ought to reconstruct the great civilisational highways of the Silk Route, along which so much philosophy, ideas, trade and culture flowed.

Mr. Mirza Wajahat Hassan, President of the Gilgit-Baltistan Thinkers Forum, noted in his speech that "All regions of J&K have been engulfed in conflict since 1988. A djinn was taken out of the bottle and today's sole superpower was responsible for this. The people of Gilgit-Baltistan were the first victims of the jehadi djinn that they harnessed in their war against the then second superpower, Russia, in Afghanistan. Now America is also becoming a victim of this jehadi djinn. We must think of some means that will get this jehadi djinn back into the bottle."

The Institute for Conflict Management (ICM) is an independent, non-profit Think Tank headed by K.P.S. Gill who, as Director General of Police, Punjab, led the campaign that comprehensively defeated terrorism in that State. ICM focuses particularly on various patterns of sub-conventional conflict in the South Asian region, and has the largest open-source database on the subject in the world.